Most vehicles, especially motorized vehicles, such as motorcycles, automobiles, trucks, boats, airplanes, etc. employ lights for a variety of purposes. These lights can include headlights, brake lights, running lights, warning lights, identification lights, decorative lights, etc., and these lights can be located at any position on the vehicle, e.g., on the side, on the front, on the back, on the top, or on the bottom.
Conventionally, when a light is to be provided for a vehicle, a hole is formed in a body portion or a body panel for the vehicle that is the size of the light, or even a little larger. The light and the fixtures to support the light are then pushed through the hole and secured in place to provide the required illumination.
The lights currently used by vehicles tend to be incandescent lights or fluorescent lights, which take up a relatively large amount of space for the amount of light produced, and require bulky fixtures to hold them, and lenses to properly focus the light. As a result, lights on vehicles are currently very obvious and their presence can serve to disrupt the design of the vehicle. In particular, even when a light is off (e.g., in the daytime), the light is still quite obvious to anyone looking at the vehicle.
It would be desirable, therefore, to provide a vehicle light that was small and unobtrusive, and that would not be visible to nearby observers when not in use.